Three sources with knowledge of the matter told The New York Times that former White House lawyer Eric Herschmann warned former president Donald Trump about the legal risk of holding on to presidential records and classified documents.

The meeting with Herschmann — who was no longer serving as legal counsel for the former president at the time — occurred in late 2021, nearly a year after Trump left office, NYT reported.

Herschmann stressed the significant legal liability of maintaining the classified records and the possibility that Trump or his aides engaged in obstruction through storing them, sources familiar with the matter told NYT.

The following January, Trump returned the first batch of documents to the National Archives and Records Administration. It contained letters from North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, who Trump said he exchanged "beautiful" love letters with while in office, and a letter that former President Barack Obama left for Trump in 2017. ...